Sacramento fans also got to see the two teams sent to the Final Four — UCLA and South Carolina — square off in the title game on Sunday, with UCLA pulling off the stunning upset in Phoenix, routing South Carolina 79-51 to claim its first ever NCAA women’s basketball championship.

While Sacramento has played host to the NCAA men’s and women’s tournament eight other times at Arco Arena and Golden 1 Center since 1994, those were first and second-round games (the only time women previously appeared was 2010). This year Sacramento was one of only two sites — with Fort Worth being the other — to host the deeper Sweet 16 and Elite 8 matchups. After six total games and four days, No. 1 seeds UCLA and South Carolina survived and moved on to the Final Four tournament that began April 3.

With Sacramento State and Visit Sacramento hosting, the week featured all of the emotion March Madness is known for, with Visit Sacramento saying the tournament resulted in an extra booking of about 13,000 hotel rooms to accommodate UCLA, Oklahoma, Minnesota, Texas Christian University, Louisiana State, South Carolina, Virginia and Duke, bringing in an estimated $10 million in revenue.

“We came out with our team last week, and it’s been an awesome six days here in Sacramento,” says Tom Buddie, TCU’s athletic director, as he sat at an outside table at Tom’s Watch Bar across from Golden 1 Center before the Elite 8 matchup with South Carolina on March 30. “Phenomenal, phenomenal welcome, and the weather has been absolutely Chamber of Commerce. And what I love about Sacramento — and this is my first time here — is the walkability. We’re staying at the Hyatt Regency, and to be able to go around the Capitol and to Old Sacramento has been just really kind of eye-opening in a really good way.”

While Buddie’s Horned Frogs lost to South Carolina later that evening, denying them a trip to the Final Four, he probably got some advice on what to do in Sacramento from his head coach Mark Campbell, who was at Sacramento State for two seasons, taking the Hornets in 2023 to their first NCAA Tournament berth after the team won its first Big Sky regular season and tournament championships.

Another coach in the tournament with deep Sacramento ties was Duke head coach Kara Lawson, a star with the WNBA Sacramento Monarchs for seven of her 13 WNBA seasons, which included the team’s WNBA championship in 2005. Lawson, an Olympic gold medalist, was named head coach of the USA Basketball Women’s National Team last September, after coaching the 2025 USA Women’s AmeriCup Team to a gold medal.

Lawson was on the winning end of Saturday’s buzzer-beater by Ashlon Jackson as the Blue Devils claimed the thrilling 87-85 Sweet 16 win over No. 2 seed LSU. At the press conference after the game, Lawson talked about her days in Sacramento, calling it “one of the great basketball towns in the country.”

“I love this city so much,” Lawson said. “I’m telling you, everywhere I’ve gone, as we’re walking down the street, people are, like, hey, man, thanks for that title, thanks for that championship. And to be here and to be able to come back now as a coach and even though this city saw me as a player, it’s really cool.”

UCLA has a huge fan base in Sacramento and its fans travel well, so anytime the Bruins come to town the crowds are more animated, prompting UCLA guard Angela Dugalic to say in the last game’s news conference that “I know it’s a little bit away from LA but it just still felt like a home court advantage.”

Led by star Lauren Betts, who recently told her personal story in The Players Tribune, UCLA advanced to the Final Four, handily beating Oklahoma 87-68 and then Lawson’s Duke squad, 70-58, with Betts leading all scorers in the Elite 8 against Duke with 23 points.

Also heading to Phoenix, though in another capacity, was PA announcer Jaime Coffee of Sacramento, who made her sixth consecutive Final Four appearance, but was ironically behind the microphone at Golden 1 Center for her first time.

Coffee, the former voice of the Monarchs, as well as Sacramento Republic FC, became the first woman to become the PA announcer for an NBA game when she was asked to fill in for Scott Moak in 2014 at Sleep Train Arena. Coffee has some special memories of Lawson after the Monarchs won the WNBA title and Lawson jumped up on her table in excitement.

“It’s been fun to watch her grow,” says Coffee, whose full-time job is director of communications for the CHP. “I also just worked the ACC conference tournament, and so I just saw her.”

Sacramento fans will have another chance next year to experience March Madness, as the men’s NCAA tournament is returning to Sacramento in 2027, with the Golden 1 Center, Sacramento State and Visit Sacramento hosting the first and second rounds, scheduled for March 19-21.

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